Salt n Vinegar

As I understand it Jesus said that he was there not to do away with the old laws, but to fulfil them. I admit that it's a bit difficult to understand the meaning of the words of creator of the universe who, of course is all good, unless he's not in which case he is moving in mysterious ways. Doesn't stop those who claim to understand them of course or even those who claim to know his/her/its nature telling fellow beings how to live their lives. Anyway, if being at Sunday School, the Cubs and having a father who was an Elder in the CofS couldn't impress me with religious BS, you may rest assured that you, most certainly, are not up to the task. I don't know what it would take to make me believe such nonsense, but presumably your all knowing and wise God does, but has chosen not to provide it.

The list of "offences" mentioned in the Bible which carry the death penalty is so extensive it would give a Texan State Governor wet dreams. As I think Bill Maher once put it, its a case of (something like) 'more people get stoned in the Bible than in my jacuzzi". Those dudes who pulled the books together and decided what to include in or leave out have a lot to answer for. The divine word of the creator of the universe appears to be pretty inconsistent.

I always find it amusing that people who don't like being presented with quotes from the Bible that they don't like claim that they are "out of context". Odd; you'd have thought they'd regard it as gospel. Still, takes all sorts. At least (most) Christians don't murder people due to differences in interpretation - well, not for a while now anyway. Watch out for "exorcisms" , though. They can turn a bit nasty.

Watch out for the mixed fibres, miracles and witches too. Can't be too careful...

The way we played in midweek, we'd be better playing all 4 keepers.

Well, this thread has taken a strange turn... With Dykes out, (matron!) how will our - what some countries refer to as - "forward line" or "attack" shape up? I understand that nobody else is being called in to the squad. If Adams gets injured, will we go for the Craig Levine 4-6-0 "Norway solution"?

Give it an hour and someone will find a way to blame the EU, quite possibly focusing on the French. Or the England team losing to Hungary. Or the weather. Or something. But not partygate, or BoJo generally, no siree.

I look forward to Scotland securing maximum points from RoI and Armenia and being in a fight with Ukraine for top spot. In other news, England have disappointed HMtQ by losing to Hungary on Jubilee Saturday. A penalty in the presence of VAR was not enough to convince the pundit (Owen?) or the manager that the award was justified.

Look, it's simple. Jacob Rees-Mogg needs somewhere he can send nanny if he runs out of lemon sices for his G&T or Pimms!

In other evidence that we are indeed in strange times, Hungary are 1-0 up against England.

I don't believe in gods but after today's reassuring result, I'll concede an "amen to that!"

Trust our bloody luck. Being drawn in the same group as Armenia just as they begin their rise to international dominance...

So, basically, most of the milk bottle tops were being handed out for turning up. Makes Muttley demanding medals before helping Dastardly out of a problem seem positively heroic!

In other jubbly news, and its association with the more Richard Crainially minded, I came out of a shop in Portobello early this afternoon to witness a little black car going along the High Street with its windows open, belting out what was a pretty hellish rendition of a flute band playing "The Sash". Her maj would be thrilled. Me? Not so much. Thankfully I witnessed only about half a dozen displays of UJ "bunting" during my hour or so's walk, happily noting that there were far more displays of Ukrainian flags than that. Maybe the country isn't as mental as it might appear.

As I have said, my statement about the RoI ranking was incorrect, therefore it follows that my earlier conclusion was also incorrect. However as we are the second highest ranked, to fail to finish at least second would be a demonstrable failure. Now it might be that further disasters will befall Ukraine, but just as RoI's squad and prospects won't have changed much over this morning, our performance against Ukraine this week leads me to believe that we are unlikely to finish top. To do that I think we'd need to take 4 points off them, which at the moment seems unrealistic. I'll be delighted to be proved wrong but I was one of the ones who was optimistic about this week's game. I even had to watch it sober. I admit that I'll be increasingly optimistic as each game approaches, but I'm in my 60s and I've seen that movie too often for my liking. Our last match is away to Ukraine, scheduled for 27 September but I've no idea where it will be played. We don't want to go into that match needing a win.

As has been pointed out, and acknowledged, my earlier statement was incorrect! That being the case, failure to get at least second would be a real failure. I'm not saying it's impossible for Scotland to finish top but there's been little recent evidence to suggest that we can take 4 points off Ukraine.

Well that's weird. I looked this morning and the first site that came up said they were at 30. More bloody Russian or North Korean disinformation of some kind, intended to undermine confidence I expect! Of course that's now worse. More of a riddie if we don't do well...

Just so we know where we are starting from, I think it might be wise to base our expectations on our international form. Apart from Armenia who are about 50 places below us in the rankings, we once again have Ukraine and also the Republic of Ireland in our group, both of whom are above us. Now it could be that we have a master plan to make us win a game or 2 games against Ukraine by the end of September, but to be talking about winning the group, even for an optimist like me, is a bit much. We will have to punch well above our weight to finish second. Fun's fun but let's keep the heid.

Cue quick chorus of "Tragedy". Either well-known version will do. However, although I believe in none of the supernatural/religious bilge, there appears to be a depressingly large amount of evidence for reincarnation on this forum.

I have no real problem with that. I had to attend a couple of full Council meetings in Edinburgh years ago. (Ok, didn't "have to" but there were items on local issues I was interested in!) I confess to being a bit surprised that the meeting started (not "was preceded by, but started") with a sermon and a prayer. When the representative of Heaven on Earth had finished, about a half to a third of the members came in. They presumably wanted to take no part in that superstitious rubbish. Oddly, none of the other members even thought it worthy of comment. It happened both times I was there - don't know if it still happens now. If the folk in the Green party didn't fancy that particular item of business and felt so strongly about it, to have remained would have been hypocritical, IMO.

Oh, I don't know.... nobody elected the Head of State and she gets to lead a whole Church.

Aye, but it is thought that it took a rare event millions of years ago to make them go extinct; the way that the electorate in England tend to act in general elections, it might be that another huge asteroid strike is as likely as the Tories losing power at the next election. To me, Jacob Rees Mogg does share some of the characteristics of the movie portrayal of a velociraptor. Happy to be in the limelight while others in the pack sneak about in the background, makes a really annoying sound and can have a disastrous effect on its victims.

Cheers, now give us another one....

All we are saying, is give us a goal.

We're f#cked